She brought the lantern, but she was a timid, little, unenterprising
thing, and was mortally afraid of the caverns, a fear that Patience
had thought it well not to combat. Emlyn who had already scrambled
all over the face of the slope, and peeped into all, could have told
him a great deal more about them; but she hated the sight of a rebel,
and sat on the ground making ugly faces and throwing little stones
after him whenever his back was turned.
Stead, afraid to betray by his looks of anxiety, when Jeph came near
the spot, sat all the time with his elbows on his knees, and his
hands over his face, fully trusting to what all had agreed at the
time of the burial of the chest, that there was no sign to indicate
its whereabouts.
He felt rather than saw that Jeph, after tumbling out the straw and
fern that served for fodder in the lower caves, where the sheep and
pigs were sheltered in winter, had scrambled up to the hermit's
chapel, when suddenly there was a shout, but not at all of
exultation, and down among the bushes, lantern and all came the
soldier, tumbling and crashing into the midst of an enormous bramble,
whence Stead pulled him out with the lantern flattened under him, and
his first breathless words were--
"Beelzebub himself!" Then adding, as he stood upright, "he made full
at me, and I saw his eyes glaring.
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